Vecna's power not only takes a mental toll but also a physical one. Much like depression, Vecna's victims experience physical symptoms such as exhaustion, lack of sleep, headaches, and nosebleeds. Similarly, when dealing with depression and trauma, a person's physical health worsens.
Chaiken suggests that while Vecna is a source of horror in Stranger Things, the monster can also serve as a useful vessel for externalizing issues like trauma and depression.
The latest series of Stranger Things is another brilliant blend of horror, sci-fi fantasy and drama. But new villain Vecna is a reflection of something very real: post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and grief.
Vecna Is the Physical Form of Depression. After Vecna murders Chrissy and the others, he continues to torment Max with horrifying visions, feeding her false belief that she's to blame for Billy's death and adding to her psychological instability.
Brenner (Matthew Modine) states in the Stranger Things episode "Papa" that Vecna "consumes" everything about his victims, Vecna targets traumatized victims because it builds for him a well of sad and angry memories to draw from. With each victim, he can become gradually more powerful.
Vecna lives in the Upside Down and preys on people's past traumas and guilt. The monster curses its victims, making them relive their trauma in progressively more gruesome ways until it violently kills them.
Eleven is examined as a child hero of the series who has a potential diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), has significant psychosocial developmental delays that she continues to overcome as the series develops, and is an emblem for the cultural mythology of the 1980s.
“It is almost as though Vecna is a personification of trauma and mental illness,” she says. “Isolation and mental health go hand in hand as there is a tendency to cut off from everyone around us as we believe that we won't be understood, or we just won't be seen,” she adds.
In the visions of her trauma induced by Vecna, Chrissy's mother appeared both mentally and emotionally abusive towards her daughter - and it's implied her comments about Chrissy's figure caused her daughter to develop her eating disorder.
Max's past experience with trauma — namely, watching the Mind Flayer brutally kill her stepbrother Billy (Dacre Montgomery) in Season 3 — makes her a target for Vecna's manipulation. She's become withdrawn and adrift, pulling away from her friends and sinking deeper into what looks like depression.
People with severe depression often isolate themselves from their friends and family. Will literally disappeared from his friends and his family and went into the upside down. Depression is a very dark place to be (I've been there) and people often feel helpless when they're there.
While intending to get his revenge on Eleven and Brenner, Vecna also goes after victims who have dealt with traumatizing experiences in the past (reminiscent of his childhood and his time at the Hawkins lab).
Vecna's Hand
This is a reference to the D&D character Vecna, for whom this Vecna is named; the D&D Vecna has a monstrous hand infused with dark magic. The design of Vecna's hand is also a nod to Freddy Krueger, the Nightmare on Elm Street villain who had a huge influence on this season in general.
The Monarch Buttery is chosen as the animal that symbolizes depression and for people who experience mental illness. As in its early stages of development, the buttery is in a cocoon-like shape and structure, it resembles the feelings of depression and withdrawal one feels during depression.
You might have seen rainstorm images, ravens, and skull or grim reaper symbols. Barren landscapes and faces of cliffs are popular, too. All of these are commonly associated with depression because they capture the essence of the darkness, despair, struggle, and thoughts of death that are hallmarks of major depression.
The “Three Little Pigs“ were seen as a symbol of the Great Depression, with the wolf representing the Depression and the three little pigs representing average citizens who eventually succeeded by working together.
Once he takes control of the mind, he traumatizes them by showing the visions of their dark past. He takes them to unknown places and gives them a glimpse of himself. The pain of his victims doesn't end here. Every single one of his victims experiences nose bleeding and severe headaches as well.
Unlike the reporters at the Hawkins Post, Fred treated Nancy with respect. Though Fred appeared to be bright and level-headed, he harbored extreme guilt for his role in the fatal 1985 car accident, and believed many people look at him as a "murderer." This guilt and mental unrest made him a target of Vecna.
If Vecna can overwhelm their victim with fear, and keep them from resisting, their fate is almost certainly sealed. In the real world, he makes the victim levitate while in their trance, before snapping their bones and neck, and crushing their eyes.
After suffering so much physical and emotional trauma (his father's abuse, his narrow escape from the Upside Down, and his invasive body-swap with the Mind Flayer), Will has every right to be angry and cynical.
The first seeds of Robin being on the autism spectrum were planted in Stranger Things Season 3. In her first season of the show Robin is shown to be impulsive, a talented linguist and out of the box thinker, allowing her to approach problem-solving from a unique angle and figure out the secret Russian code.
Two seasons and three in-show years later, Max is suffering nightmares and bouts of depression after witnessing Billy's death at the hands of a monster from the Upside Down a few months prior.
Psychotherapist Georgia Dow analyzes the character's very recognizable behavior. The Psychology of Robin's ADHD: Stranger Things 4 — Therapist Reacts!
While there are no direct statements, it's still clear that Max suffers from mental illnesses, such as depression, trauma, and even PTSD.
In season 4, Peter Ballard notes that Kali was no longer at the lab in 1979. Given Kali's powers, it seems pretty self-explanatory as to how she was able to escape the lab. She either made herself invisible or was able to escape after manipulating the minds and visions of the guards.